Her treatment by the in-laws was often a product of such beliefs, and the custom of marriage and the dowry system illustrates much of the unfortunate problems encountered by them such as domestic abuse and violence.
The goal of marriage was not for love. Instead, it was to raise the family honor and prestige while preserving the bloodline. Neither the bride nor the groom had any say in the matter or choice in whom to marry, and so all marriages were arranged. The bride's family was responsible for paying the dowry to the groom's parents, and the details of such arrangements could become quite complex. If for any reason the full amount of the expected dowry could not be paid, the consequences for the bride and her family could be tragic. In an effort to obtain the missing dowry, property from the bride's family was sometimes forcibly taken from them. The bride herself was often mistreated and abused physically. In my own family, my paternal grandmother was beaten by her husband, my grandfather, and my own mother was similarly abused by my father, partly due to such dowry customs. In the worst such cases, brides were sometimes murdered by burning in so-called mysterious kitchen fires. Greedy families would then arrange another marriage for their sons in order to obtain another dowry from another bride's family. Such acts were considered acceptable and justified as a way for the groom's family to assert their power and prestige.
Another negative result of the dowry system was that women were expected to give birth to sons, not daughters since sons would not only carry on the family line, but also bring in a dowry, thereby increasing the family wealth, and daughters would have the opposite effect. Financial resources for things such as education and even food was devoted to the male children, with girls being the first to suffer from malnutrition if the family was poor, and being sent to schools of lower caliber, if at all.